The quality of family life is inextricably linked with housing: with the type of housing, size of housing, cost of housing, location of housing and tenure of housing. Unfortunately, this relationship has been so taken for granted that there has been little effort made to develop a body of knowledge on how family structure affects the housing market and, conversely, how changes in the availability, cost and diversity of housing affect family structure. The relationship between family structure and housing opportunities remains a neglected area of sociological analysis. [Introduction]